Google begins testing its own private ferry for employees

Google workers who live in the East Bay can now make the commute to the company’s Silicon Valley campus by sea. For a week, anyway. Starting Monday, the agency that operates San Francisco Bay Ferry says Google will provide a private ferry service between Harbor Bay terminal in Alameda to the Port of Redwood City.

Hoping to defuse the controversy over its employee buses that have been surrounded by protests, Google last month launched a free catamaran service to carry Google workers to and from work between San Francisco and the South Bay. Starting Monday, for a week at least, Google will set sail with an experimental Alameda-to-Redwood City ferry route, according to the Associated Press. The agency that operates San Francisco Bay Ferry told the AP that Google’s ferry will run between Alameda’s Harbor Bay terminal and the Port of Redwood City, but Google workers will not park in the Harbor Bay ferry lot during the five-day trial.